Weaned!

We just hit a milestone: I finally weaned Yuri from the breast.

I "forced" it; it wasn't child-led. I know some of you will raise your brows at this, but let me tell you that this has been one of the best mothering decisions of mine.

I had been breastfeeding Yuri for more than 31 months. That's a lot, in my opinion, and in all honesty, I will say that it's enough.

I was and still am an advocate of breastfeeding. Unlike other women, I didn't set a limit on nursing my child. You see, when Yuri was a newborn baby, I discovered that breastfeeding made mothering a lot easier. Baby is fussy? Breastfeed. Baby is hungry? Breastfeed. Baby is sleepy? Breastfeed. Life was golden. Why would I stop?

I also decided to pursue child-led weaning wherein the child decides for himself when he would stop nursing. This made Job laugh because, apparently, they have never heard of such a thing. My parents, too. I read that premature weaning has negative impacts such as thumb-sucking and insecurity. I also learned the advantages of continuing to breastfeed through the ages, which is why I wrote this post on why we should do extended breastfeeding.

And since my toddler showed no sign of weaning anytime soon, we continued nursing - even when sometimes, I wanted to stop.

You know what, I began contemplating weaning even before Yuri turned 2. However, those were thoughts that I didn't entertain mainly because nursing has been nothing but a positive experience for both of us. I also didn't have the heart to take it away from Yuri. So we continued nursing.

However, when the ex-yaya-who-shall-not-be-named left and I became a full-time working mom and yaya, our situation took on a 180° turn.

First, since Yuri and I spent 24/7 of our time together, his nursing time increased. He was more like a newborn than a toddler. He would grab at my breast several times in an hour, and that was incredibly frustrating because it kept interrupting my work. He wasn't even "feeding." He was only using me as a pacifier.

Second, because of this, my patience decreased everyday. I kept at yelling at Yuri to stop bugging me and let me finish working first.

Third, because I was always angry and Yuri's primary reaction to comfort himself is to breastfeed, he will just nurse again and even longer. It was a frustrating vicious cycle.

Fourth, even beyond work, I kept getting frustrated because Yuri would begin to refuse to do regular "chores" like eating and brushing of teeth. It seems like all he wants to do is nurse and we couldn't accomplish anything. He would also get fussy at the slightest reason just so he can nurse.

In other words, this whole breastfeeding a 31-month old is no longer working for both me and Yuri. Both our physical and emotional well-being were at stake.

I didn't want to continue nursing just for the sake of nursing; I didn't want to come to a point where I'd get too frustrated that I'll vow never to breastfed anymore.

I knew it was high time I stop waiting for Yuri to self-wean and initiate the weaning myself.

These helped me ~~win~~ wean.

The first few attempts were woeful. Finally, I just decided to try out this method that both Job and his mother and my parents suggested. I was opposed to this particular method because I thought it was mean! However, I was desperate, so I used it as my last resort.

And it worked beautifully! No tears, no fighting. He was just that - weaned!

That's when I realized that Yuri was ready to be weaned. He was so nonchalant about it. I also imagined the event to be emotional, but it wasn't. I didn't feel sad because we have had a long and mostly good breastfeeding journey. It was smart to end it on a positive note.

*I realize this post is getting too long, so I'm dividing it into two parts. In the next part, which I will surely write this week, I will tell you more about the attempts I have done and the final technique that worked successfully. I hope you'll read it!